CHALLENGE

The following is a list of books I have read since September 1, 2009, to complete the Goodreads Seasonal Reading Challenge for Fall 2009. The challenge runs from Sept 1 through November 30, 2009. Two people were finished with all the tasks by the end of September! Some people didn't even decide to join until last month.

5 POINT TASKS
1. Daughters of the Grail by Elizabeth Chadwick
2. After the Apple by Naomi Harris Rosenblatt
3. Jack Nastyface: the Adventures of an English Seaman by William Robinson
4. Krapp's Last Cassette by Anne Argula
5. The Crucible by Arthur Miller
6. Web of Evil by J.A. Jance
7. My Journey with Farrah by Alana Stewart
8. The White Gryphon by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon
9. Unstrung Heroes by Franz Lidz
10. This Time Together by Susan L. Liepitz

10 POINT TASKS
1. Run Silent, Run Deep by Edward L. Beach
2. The Seven-percent Solution by Nicholas Meyer
3. Stories Children Need by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
4. When the Ground Turns in Its Sleep by Sylvia Sellers-Garcia
5. A Visible Darkness by Michael Gregorio
6. Sacred Ground by Mercedes Lackey
7. Aphrodite's Flame by Julie Kenner
8. Joining by Johanna Lindsey
9. Jayhawkers by Bryce D. Benedict
10. Catfantastic 1 edited by Andre Norton and Martin H. Greenberg

15 POINT TASKS
1. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson AND
- Swim to Me by Betsy Carter
2. Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede
3. Addition - 11 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho AND
- Division - 31 1st - The Black Gryphon,
4. Valor's Trial by Tanya Huff
5. Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez AND
- Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa
6. Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
7. Risk by Dick Francis
8. Japan: The Ramen King and I by Andy Raskin AND
- Canada: Burying Ariel by Gail Bowen
9. Dance with Chance: Making Luck Work for You
------ by Spyros Makridakis, Robin Hogarth & Anil Gaba
10. To Sir, with Love by E.R. Braithwaite AND
- Pay It Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde

20 POINT TASKS
1. Zora & Nicky by Claudia Mair Burney
2. Exile's Valor by Mercedes Lackey,
- Fanuilh by Daniel Hood AND
- Grayheart by Tara K. Harper
3. Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

25 POINT TASKS
1. Ogden Nash's Zoo AND
- You and No Other by Cathy Maxwell
2. Restoree by mother, Anne McCaffrey AND
- Dragonsblood by son, Todd McCaffrey
3. The Funny Thing Is... by Ellen DeGeneres
4. Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser
5. The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield
6. The Shadow of Blooming Grove : Warren G. Harding in His Times by Francis Russell
7. 1: Compromised by Kate Noble,
- 2: Look Again by Lisa Scottoline AND
- 3: Fool for Love by Eloisa James
8. person: Saving Faith by David Balducci,
- place: The Witches of Karres by James H. Schmitz AND
- thing: Face Down under the Wych Elm by Kathy Lynn Emerson
9. A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks AND
- Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung
10. The Werewolf Principle by Clifford D. Simak

30 POINT TASK
1. Holes by Louis Sachar AND
- The Private World of Georgette Heyer by Jane Aiken Hodge

50 POINT TASK
1. The Seeing Stone by Kevin Crossley-Holland,
- Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik AND
- Baby Teeth by Blythe Holbrooke

Totals: 45 tasks, 62 books, 690 points
Reward: an expanded mind, a disheveled house and the right to choose a task for the Winter Challenge.

The word for the day for October 29, 2009 is "challenge" - Function: noun
Date: 14th century
1 a : a summons that is often threatening, provocative, stimulating, or inciting; specifically : a summons to a duel to answer an affront. b : an invitation to compete in a sport2 a : a calling to account or into question : protest b : an exception taken to a juror before the juror is sworn c : a sentry's command to halt and prove identity d : a questioning of the right or validity of a vote or voter. 3 : a stimulating task or problem. 4 : the act or process of provoking or testing physiological activity by exposure to a specific substance; especially : a test of immunity by exposure to an antigen.

Our quote for the day is from William Shakespeare (1564–1616), Romeo and Juliet Act II. Scene IV:

Ben. Tybalt, the kinsman of old Capulet,
Hath sent a letter to his father’s house.
Mer. A challenge, on my life.
Ben. Romeo will answer it.
Mer. Any man that can write may answer a letter.
Ben. Nay, he will answer the letter’s master, how he dares, being dared.

SOMNOLENCE

A quiet New Year's Day—not that I expected anything else. We went to bed around eight on New Year's Eve and woke up about five-thirty New Year's morning. If anyone set off fireworks or firearms during the night, I did not hear them.

As I had spent most of New Year's Eve getting everything cleaned up for the new year—an old superstition, if you will—most of Thursday morning was spent watching the Rose Bowl Parade with Lloyd. That's the first time I've done that in years. It's the first time he's done that in years. Of course, I had a book in one hand: the usual way that I watch television.

Lloyd has never come to grips with me being able to do other things while I read. Once a long time ago, we were in bed watching tv. I had my head on his shoulder, reading. To tease me, he bent his arm so that it lay across my eyes. I said nothing, as I could see the book perfectly well underneath his arm. When I came to the end of the paragraph, I turned the page. He almost freaked out as he was expecting a quite different reaction.

This New Year's we had roast pork tenderloin, left over from Christmas; black-eyed peas, for good luck; corn bread and spinach for dinner. It was delicious if I do say it myself. I hope you all had a quiet holiday and wish you all good things for the coming year.

Our word of the day for January 2, 2009 is "somnolence" — Pronunciation: \'säm-nə-lən(t)s\
Function: noun
Date: 14th century
: the quality or state of being drowsy : sleepiness.

Our quote for the day is from Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. Walden (1854), in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, vol. 2, p. 99, Houghton Mifflin (1906):

The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour. Then there is least somnolence in us; and for an hour, at least, some part of us awakes which slumbers all the rest of the day and night.

;^)

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